


Ghost of a Problem

by yhlee (etothey)



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Cats, Fluff, Gen, Ghosts, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21852682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etothey/pseuds/yhlee
Summary: Danny helps Jessica Jones with her latest "problem": an adorable ghost who wants her company.Thank you to actonbell for the beta.
Comments: 22
Kudos: 53
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Ghost of a Problem

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sholio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/gifts).



"I'm sorry," Danny said as he paused in his form. He let his chi dissipate and looked, nonplussed, at the woman who had just banged open the door to the apartment. "Did you say _ghost_?"

Standing there looking like an overgrown sullen teenager in her street clothes was Jessica Jones. She scowled at Danny. "You heard me the first time. Yes, I'm dealing with a ghost."

Danny couldn't help grinning. Jessica, admitting to the existence of the supernatural? "You're sure it's a ghost and not some problem in the ventilation, or a prankster, or--"

"You think I didn't check out the non-supernatural possibilities already?" she snapped. "I'm positive it's a ghost. It even told me so. Kind of."

Danny shook his head, bemused. "Well, come in and I'll make you some tea and you can tell me about it."

"Ugh, tea." But Jessica entered anyway, shutting the door none too quietly behind her. As Danny padded into the kitchen area to boil water, she wandered past him to the window. Checking to see if anyone had followed her, no doubt.

"Why are you killing cacti, anyway?" Jessica asked as she paused by the windowsill.

Danny covered a wince. The cacti had been looking glum and droopy for the last couple of weeks, and he still hadn't figured out how to improve things for them. Jessica snapped a picture with her phone. Danny thought about objecting, but trying to get Jessica to stop invasively photographing suspicious things was like trying to keep a New York cabbie from running you over.

Danny shifted uncomfortably. "I'm practicing communing with them and sensing the chi of plants," he said. "Just in case."

"Just in case _what_?" Jessica scowled at him. "You really go in for this 'plants have feelings' crap, too?"

"You never know when that kind of thing comes in handy." Danny wondered if she'd press him, but she merely rolled her eyes.

"All right," Jessica said grudgingly, "maybe this chi stuff has a use. Can you sense the ghost?"

Danny put the kettle on, then considered this. "I can certainly try. Is the ghost unfriendly?"

Jessica turned abruptly. "Not exactly. It's just annoying. I didn't ask to be haunted!"

Danny put his hands up in a _now, now_ gesture that he realized belatedly would only infuriate her. "What kind of ghost is it?"

She waggled her finger at him. "Uh-uh. I need to make sure you're actually perceiving this ghost, not telling me what I want to hear."

Danny suppressed a sigh. "Of course." He came out into the living room and sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor. "You too."

Jessica hesitated, then took a position across from him. She was scowling even harder, if possible. "I just--listen. Don't do anything to it until we figure out what it wants, okay? It hasn't tried to harm me."

It was nobody's secret that Jessica was not nearly as hard-bitten as she liked to pretend, but Danny certainly didn't want to chance her temper by pointing it out. He centered himself, resting his fingers on both knees, and closed his eyes, focusing on his breath. Everything fundamental came from the breath; they had taught him that in K'un-Lun. (His one attempt to teach Jessica meditation had gone so dreadfully wrong that Colleen had forbidden them to try it again, although he still thought she would benefit from it if she'd just let herself give it a chance.)

Danny could sense the hard tangled brightness of Jessica's chi without a problem. It almost filled up the room, all angles and start-stop flows. Not healthy, really, but he wasn't going to bring it up. And besides, despite the angry knots and angles, hidden beneath all that was a soft core of light. Jessica would only have scoffed if he'd ever mentioned that anyone who could sense chi could detect the fundamental kindness at the heart of her. And besides, she had very good reasons for disguising that part of herself. One thing he'd learned in his years of study was that some things weren't his to share.

Besides, Jessica's chi wasn't the issue at hand. He let his breathing slow, let his attention diffuse into all the corners of the room and--aha. There it was.

The ghost had chi too, unconnected to a body of its own, but it had quite definitely fixed itself to Jessica as a sort of lifeline. Danny opened his eyes, and now he could see it clearly. It was a kitten, a little orange tabby with large eyes.

"Mrrrrrrrp," said the kitten-ghost. It leapt up onto surfaces that didn't exist in the mortal realm, leapt down into Jessica's lap. Jessica's expression was comical, a mixture of irritation and tenderness.

"I'm not seeing a problem here," said Danny, who had been braced for something more dangerous despite Jessica's incredibly vague assurances. Nothing to exorcise--not his area of expertise, but he supposed it might be possible to apply chi strikes even to a noncorporeal opponent. Not that he could think of a little undead ball of fluff as an _opponent_. "It seems very happy where it is."

The kitten started purring. He could even feel the slight sympathetic vibrations it set up in Jessica's own chi.

"It's not going to, like, accidentally alert any boogeymen who try to suck out my soul or something?" Jessica demanded. Even so, she tried to pet it. Her fingers passed harmlessly through the kitten's ectoplasmic fur.

"If you can train it," Danny said, a bit dubious, "maybe it'll alert _you_ to boogeymen coming after you."

Jessica snorted. "It's a _cat_ , Danny. Didn't they have cats in Shangri-La? Cats can't be trained. They never do what you want them to."

Spoken like someone with a certain amount of experience with cats, Danny observed, but he kept that to himself. "Not so much, no," he admitted.

"I suppose there might be advantages to having a ghostly pet," Jessica said grudgingly. "No cat food, which is good because I can't afford it. No kitty litter, which is _really_ good because I deal with enough shit as it stands. Although it's usually the metaphorical kind."

Danny continued to listen, hiding his smile, as Jessica proceeded to talk herself into keeping the kitten for her very own secret companion. _You chose wisely,_ he thought at the ghost kitten. Its chi flowed toward Jessica's, calming the knots in her chi, and her inner light became a little bit more visible.

Just then the kettle began to whistle, and Danny got up. Even if Jessica hated tea, he was going to offer it anyway, and he wanted some for himself.

The kitten yawned hugely in his direction, then snuggled up even more closely to Jessica, radiating contentment.


End file.
